{WiP} Wednesday ~ 5/52 ~ Straight-lines and Swirls

While there are other works I need to finish, this quilt is the only one I can even think of right now!

I'm working on the straight lines now, and had a wee little hiccup with at the long arm on Friday, but got the swirls all quilted on another long arm. Whew!!

Ain't she purty? :-)

Once I finish this, I've got 4 bee blocks for January to make. I'm going to have to ask for some grace, though, because I know I won't be finished with this enough to make those by Friday!

And THEN, just when I swore off any more projects, I was sitting in church, all was peaceful and pastor started talking, and before anyone could even get their bibles open, I was sketching out a new, inspired-by-the-sermon quilt in the back of a Target receipt. :-/. And I'm obsessed!! But it'll just have to wait.

I've got another burden right now. :-) Hope you're having a great week!

I'm linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for her WiP Wednesday linky party and with Fabric Tuesday at QuiltStory. Go see what others are crafting, too!

{WiP} Wednesday ~ 4/52

My first WiP Wednesday post for 2013 -- even though we've already had 3 others! Whoops! I really enjoyed trying to post every week last year, and hate that I've already missed the first three. It's just that I'm...

BUSY!

You are too, I know that. And I appreciate you reading about my life and how I spend my time! I want to blog more often, but I just can't bring myself to sit down at the computer and tap out anything that seems valuable and worth your time! So, I guess I'll do what I can, when I can, and maybe come up with a bit more.

Plus, when I have quiet time, I don't necessarily want to be typing! I want to be sleeping. Or sewing. Or folding laundry. Okay. Haha. Not really. I don't want to be folding laundry. I want it folded and put away, I just don't want to be the one to do it! :)

But anyway, this is about works in progress. All I've been working on is this:

 

And this: 

And when I can, we do some of this:

 

And this:

(In case you can't tell, Buzz loved his first time on the swings. He laughed and laughed and laughed some more.)

I'm almost done with the top of the Hope Takes Flight (take 2) quilt. I just have to put on the borders, then sew 2 pieces of the backing together, and then it's ready for quilting! And, no. I'm not doing it (all) at home. I can't. I won't!!

My plan is to quilt the swirls in the butterflies on the long arm and do some long basting stitches in the white, then bring it home and quilt the straight lines in the white on my home machine. That part didn't take long, once I got it all figured out. :) 

My other WiP is going to be on-going. I've jumped on the Project Life bandwagon. Have you heard of it? It's a simplified method of memory keeping. I don't call it scrapbooking, because it isn't what we usually think of when we say "scrapbooking". While it is a book of memories, it's not a book of carefully designed and cropped and embellished pages. If you're on Pinterest or Instagram or Flickr, search under Project Life, and you'll find a TON of images of people's pages. And the blog post that pushed me over the edge was written by my friend, Traci. You can see her ADORABLE family over here.

While I have purchased some things, I scored all of this off of CraigsList today:

The binder isn't a Project Life product, but since I don't know what I want my overall book to look like, I thought a practically free binder would be a good thing to have. :)  For $30, I got a new box of assorted page protectors, a pack of 6x12 sleeves, and the binder.

I can already tell that being a Lifer is going to be a good thing. Just going back and logging what we have done for the past 23 days of 2013 has been great! There are SO many things I would have forgotten!!

And I really hope to record the REAL elements of life. And include ME!! You know how we mamas are. All the pictures have the kids, but none of the mama. All the stories are about the kids, but not the mama. In 3 years - or 30 - I want us to be able to look at this and see that I was doing things, too. That I was having fun, or that I wore the same sweatshirt for 3 days in a row, or whatever. I want my children to know what life was REALLY like for us. I have no memories like this of, or from, my mother, and I wish I did. And I know my kids wish I did!! Mookie, my 4 year old, asks about my mom a lot (calls her my "first mom"), and I have very little to show her. And as the years go on, I won't be able to show her much about my life as a child, either.

And I want that to end. Now.

I want pictures of windy days at the park:

Love the hair, Sprout!

And silly faces:

Buzz. Loves to make noise. Guess it's a fitting name, then, eh?

And the backyard picnic in 68 degree weather, 2 feet from unmelted snow (Colorado weather is so confusing!)

 

So. My WiPs. One I'm almost finished with, and one I'm just beginning.

Hope you have a great, and crafty, week!  I'm linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for her regularly scheduled WiP Wednesday linky party.

WIDRN => What I'm Doing Right Now

I'm on InstaGram. Are you? I'm mtnmel if you want to find me there. I mostly post pictures of the kids, and what little sewing I seem to do. I'm really loving IG.

So I took the popular hashtag #widrn for this post. :)

So, what AM I doing right now??  Not what I'm supposed to be doing, that's for sure! :)

I need to be working on the agenda for the Front Range MQG leadership meeting on Saturday, but with Cinderella playing in the background, I can't really think. :-/

I need to be working on my Madrona Road challenge. I figured out what I'm going to do, and I'm quite excited about it. :)  It's a little bit modern, a little bit traditional. I'll do a little hand quilting, and a little machine quilting. We're doing a secret pillow swap, and it's possible my partner reads my blog, so I can't say anything more, but I promise to post pictures of my progress...once I actually start!! :)

And somehow...

SOMEHOW...

I neglected to tell you something very important...

Remember my Butterflies and Rainbows quilt, Hope Takes Flight? Well, I decided to enter it into QuiltCon in the Bee category, and while I think they're mistaken, the judges chose the quilt for the contest!

IT'S GOING TO AUSTIN!!!

I'M GOING TO AUSTIN!!!

Now, you might be a bit confused, thinking "I thought she gave the quilt to Restore Innocence already?" And you'd be right!  BUT...

I'm making another one. :)  When I first asked the Faith circle of the do.Good Stitches bee for butterfly blocks, I had a different design in mind. Once the blocks started coming, I realized that I couldn't handle that design (too too much going on), so I redesigned it using only half the blocks. So I always knew I was going to make two quilts, I just didn't expect that one would be selected to go to QuiltCon! :)  The second one will be identical, so nothing to worry about there. :) 

Can you tell the difference?

Obviously the second one is the first one. Or, uh...the one on the right is the first one... :) You know what I mean.  But they look pretty similar, no?

So, anyway...I'm frantically making the second quilt now. And I swear, I will NOT have the same quilting problems that I had with the first. I can't. I just can't. Lightning doesn't strike the same place twice, right? :)  Plus, I'm going to long arm this one, if I can.

My children seem to be foiling my plans, though and needing me when I should be sewing. Sheesh! :)

And so, #widrn? I'm trying to figure out how to get that done without me actually having to sew it. Or maybe I'll figure out how to clone myself first.

Once I finish that, I've got 4 bee blocks to make, and a Sugar Block Club block to make. I'm using polka dots. Are you in The Club, too? Amy is such a sweetie, I'm glad to be a part of this block-of-the-month club.

Gotta run. It's time to feed the cuties. Hope you're having a great week!

Looking Back on 2012

As we all have the tendancy to do, I've been thinking about the year gone past as we open the book on the year ahead. Obviously, my most important "made" was little Rocket Man. He is really a joy.

(smooching the baby in the mirror)

After reviewing my Flickr photostream, and my Instagram photos, it does seem like I sewed a lot more than I thought I did! :) But, to be honest, not as much as I wanted to. 3 kids will wear an old girl out! :) Here are most of the over 60 bee blocks I made this year. I know of about 5 that weren't pictured, though I can't explain why. I'm sure I took the pictures, I just guess maybe I didn't post them to Flickr?

And here is a mosaic of all the things (most of the things?) I made in 2012. Not too shabby, but, again, I wanted to make more. Maybe in 2013, right?

And, I don't know if many of you remember, but last January, I set a goal for myself, and posted it, calling it Truth. My Goal for 2012. I wanted to be more financially responsible, and I put it all out there so anyone who wanted to, could see where I wanted to try harder. Here's what I wrote then:

Can Buy

• Necessities - such as diapers, clothes for the kids, cat litter, etc.
• Eat out for lunch 1x a week/the girls and 1x a week for dinner/all 4 of us
• Fabric and supplies for gifts or charity projects
• Cleaning supplies
• Educationally nutritional stuff for the kids
• Gifts for others
• Absolutely necessary clothing for Melissa (like undergarments) :)
• New saucepan since I burned the good one I had...otherwise no kitchen items!
• Make-up that costs less than $5
• Party supplies for whatever parties we might have, but borrow what I can.

Can't Buy (because we already have enough of these things!)

• Fabric just because it's pretty and I want to have it (to "stash")
• Thread just because it's on sale.
• Paper and pens and blank cards and office supplies (unless we're out).
• Toys for the kids (except birthday/Christmas gifts).
• Clothes for me. At all. Maternity or otherwise (unless it's a necessity, see above)
• Sippy cups. Hah!
• Fabric for "ideas in my head" -- I can only buy fabric for projects I will actually DO!
• Convenience store candy/snacks/drinks
• Any dishes or kitchen items (except the saucepan I mentioned above!)
• Sewing tools I could borrow
• Colored nail polish
• Wrapping paper and accessories
• ANYTHING on clearance. (Unless it's on the "can buy" list already) - but nothing "just because"
• Shoes for me. At all. Unless it's a necessity.

And here's how I did with all of that:

• We ate out more than what I said I would, but less than what I wanted to. :)
• I didn't buy any stash fabric, which is a miracle considering some of the lovely fabric collections that came out this year! If I bought anything, it was for a specific project in mind. I'm proud of myself, but feel like I've missed out on some lovelies. That's okay, though. My time will come. :)
• As far as I can recall, I didn't buy any items of clothing for me that weren't on the "can buy" list. I'm sure there are some, but I just can't think of them. Maybe a t-shirt? Pretty good!
• I never replaced my burned saucepan. Maybe in 2013. :)
• I bought one flat of eye shadow. AND I had a coupon, so it came out to about $2.50! Woot woot!
• I did buy a few pens, and maybe one or two packs of cards, but they were on clearance. (I can't be good at everything!)
• I'm sure I bought toys for the kids, but don't remember them. We have WAY too many toys as it is!
• I definitely bought sodas at the convenience store, and sometimes snacks. This was one I never should have put out there! I just love fountain Cokes. :)
• All the rest, I think I held my ground. I didn't buy any shoes, or sewing supplies, or thread just because, or wrapping paper, or kitchen items.

Overall, I know I spent less this year because of my goal, but I feel like I spent more this year because of the massive change of family situation (Hiya, Rocket Man!). Diapers, formula ($$), clothes. It's all good, and I know I can survive without spending as much as I already do, but I have to say that I miss my days of "retail therapy", and being able to go and spend money on myself without really feeling guilty about what I didn't buy for anyone else. What I wouldn't give to have a few new foundation pieces for my wardrobe!! :) A couple of warm snuggly sweaters (my "newest" sweaters are about 6 years old), some cute tops, a couple of cute skirts. I'd sure feel spoiled, but, as with all gluttony, I would feel bad later.

I'm going to keep it up in 2013, and maybe even tighten in a few other areas, I don't know. It's nice to look back and see that I was pretty good, though. Pretty good.

Happy new year to you, my friends! I wish you the very best in this new year.

Blessings!
~Melissa